It happens: You’ve got some amazing flowers, so you grow a ton of them and now have plenty on hand. But when you’ve got a lot of one strain, there’s a good chance it’ll dry out before you move it all off your shelves. And if you live in a place with low humidity, you risk getting dry buds incredibly fast.
Super-dry buds are no good. If you pinch them, they’ll crumble. If you’ve got them bottled up, a quick shake will turn your product into, well, shake. On the other hand, high-quality buds should be somewhat firm when you pinch them, and they shouldn’t crumble. But we can’t very well just spray water on our buds, can we? (Answer: No, don’t ever spray water on them.)
There are a few ways to reinsert moisture into your buds so they stay fresh and spongy. Here’s how you can do it.
Although they’re a favorite method of college dorm residents everywhere, fruit peels work wonders for large-scale professional operations, too. Lemon and orange peels are mainstays, but skins from apples and other fruits work as well. Simply take a small piece of the peel, drop it in the jar with your buds, and seal it. Within a day, the water from the peel will transfer to your buds, giving them that “just out of the cure” feel. Chunks of fleshy fruits, such as apples, may work as well. Avoid pulpy fruit pieces such as orange slices.
Some cannabis connoisseurs mix and match particular strains with certain fruits. Strains known for their citrus scent would go best with orange peels. Strains that’re spicy may be better paired with apple skins. Try for yourself to see if there’s a noticeable difference..
Little humidification packets are offered by a variety of companies. You’ll usually find them marketed for tobacco products, but they work just as well for cannabis. Like fruit peels, simply drop the packet into a jar of buds and seal it.
Note how your packets work, however. Many packets use beads or crystals that release water into the immediate environment. But some of these packets will also transfer a “chemical” flavor to your buds, which you don’t want if you’re going for high quality. In that case, consider a reverse-osmosis “membrane-based” humidification product, like Boveda packs, which release only pure water into the storage container.
If dryness is a chronic problem, you might want to consider investing in a humidor. This is a box, typically made of wood, that maintains a particular humidity (usually around 60-70%). Newer humidors are made from plastics or silicone, but they all do the same thing: keeping your product from drying out.
Humidors are made to keep the freshness in. So if you’ve got a large amount of dry buds, simply placing them in a humidor may not do you much good. However, if you know dryness is inevitable, you can store some of your product just after it’s been cured to keep it moist. You can add extremely dry buds to the humidor if there’s already some moist buds in there. The box will balance it all out.
Humidors come in all shapes and sizes. Their prices range from $100 to thousands of dollars, depending on how large and intricate the box is.
There are other ways to remoisten your buds. You can drop a wet cotton ball or paper towel into your container, but there’s a risk: If your moistening medium has too much water in it, you risk making your buds soggy—or worse—moldy.
Some websites suggest using a piece of bread. This can work, but because bread contains yeast, it could trigger an outbreak of mold.
In the end, remember that dry, crumbly buds are always better than moldy ones. You can sell dried-out shake; you can’t (and shouldn’t) sell moldy buds.
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